Friday, 11 September 2009

At this point I would like to reiterate that Politics Cymru is an impartial and non partisan blog that tells things as we see them. We have no agenda to push and no ego’s to massage, but as bloggers, commentators and journalists we just sometimes have to give credit where credit’s due.

The conference season is upon us and being unable to join Politics Cymru’s North Wales correspondent Dewi Tri up in Llandudno I’m casting an eagle eye over proceedings from afar (via Twitter, bloggers, insiders and other social networking sites).

So here it is, this video by Plaid Cymru shows just how far ahead they are (of the other parties) in terms of thinking outside the traditional box of electioneering. Regardless of whether you agree with the message contained within the video itself (which can be picked apart) you surely must agree with me that stylistically it’s spot on. Compare that with most of the tripe that other parties put out there as propaganda it’s in a class of its own. Clearly Plaid Cymru has spent a considerable amount of time (and probably money) on this. It impressed me from its use of camera shots, its use of music and the evident care taken in post production. It almost doesn’t look like a political video (which is an achievement in its own right).

The question we here at Politics Cymru have been asking for ages is when will the other parties make at least some attempt to try and catch up? I’m not suggesting that the upcoming General Election will be won or lost because of one posh video, but I am saying that Plaid are clearly more in touch with the new methods of vote winning that could sway a fairly sizeable portion of the Welsh electorate. Given that the Welsh battleground is particularly close that could make the difference between 3 MPs and (as Ron Davies suggested) 8 MPs.

So what have the others been doing? To be fair it looks as if their at least trying. This video by Welsh Labour is quite nice if a bit dull, if you want to watch all of Cameron Direct in Rhyl (I’m sure someone does) then you can do so here at the conservative site and for Lib Dem TV click here. However do you also get the feeling that the others aren’t taking this quite as seriously as Plaid?

It may be that videos like this have no impact whatsoever on the elections outcome. Because at the end of the day the vast majority will decide who they vote for based on the issues. However a lot of those people are often torn between two parties who are particularly close on certain issues and so it could be that a video like this one might just make a difference (I couldn’t help myself).

2 comments:

it looks like a computer ad. I was expecting someone to come on and say "I'm a PC"... (not in the Plaid Cymru sense lol) - not that's that is a bad thing. If such ads work for Microsoft and Apple, why can't they work for parties? It's all about building (and identifying) with a brand. or in this case, a party.

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